Nutrition Essentials for Aquatic Athletes

"You don't eat like a marathon runner if your event is 50 metres Freestyle," says Amber Lighte, sports nutritionist to the SFU varsity swim team. "Eating for competition in the water is entirely different than other sports, and it has a few different structures to support training through the week and provide a power boost for weekend competition."

On the importance of race day eating, Amber says "You don't want to get this stuff wrong and sink like a stone. You need to think about the timing of when you need your energy and then work back to figure out when to eat." Amber recommends making a list of foods you enjoy as well as the foods that are non-negotiable. "Even if you don't like oranges, you better suck it up if you don't happen to like any other fast-metabolizing foods."

Step two is group all your fave foods by metabolism time so you can see what to eat and when. Group them so you have foods that give you energy in 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes and 120 minutes or more. Step three is back-filling each group to give yourself ensure you are balancing sugars, minerals, protiens, carbs and fibre.